5-29-15
TV-10 is reporting that Aprill Foulcard, Mayor of Jeanerette, announced on yesterday that Marvin Grogan has resigned his position as Chief of Police for the City of Jeanerette, effective immediately. Gloria Lombard will remain in the role of interim Chief of Police for the city until a permanent replacement is appointed. Mayor Foulcard and the City Council will hold a public meeting regarding the issue today at 12:00 at Jeanerette City Hall. Marvin Grogan was arrested last Friday by Lafayette Metro Narcotics agents as part of an investigation into a Lafayette Gentleman’s Club. Grogan has been charged with one count of malfeasance in office and three counts of compounding a felony.
20 YEAR OLD AUSTIN CEDARS PLED GUILTY TO A MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE YESTERDAY. TWENTY SEVEN YEAR OLD KEENAN CEDARS, AUSTIN’S UNCLE IS STILL FACING A MURDER CHARGE. BOTH MEN WERE ARRESTED ON A SECOND DEGREE MURDER CHARGE CONNECTED TO THE SHOOTING DEATH IN 2012 OF ANTHONY TOODIE BATISTE OF LAKE CHARLES. ACCORDING TO THE INVESTIGATION, BATISTE WAS SHOT AT SHAWNA WILSON CEDARS HOUSE, HIS ON AGAIN-OFF AGAIN GIRLFRIEND, AS A RESULT OF A DOMESTIC DISTURBANCE.
JULIE DARCY HAS THE DETAILS ON A DEADLY ACCIDENT INVOLVING A MOTORCYCLE JUST EAST OF EUNICE.
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(AP) Authorities have arrested an Opelousas man following an investigation into a shooting death in Lafayette Parish. The Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office said 38-year-old Jeremy James Authorlee was apprehended by deputies as he was traveling to the parish Wednesday to board a helicopter to fly out to his offshore job. The Lafayette Advertiser reports ) that Authorlee has been charged with the second-degree murder of 26-year-old Brandon Lyons. Lyons, who was found lying in the doorway of an apartment early Wednesday, had two gunshot wounds.Authorlee has been turned over to Lafayette Parish authorities and was being held on $250,000 bond.
(AP) Authorities say a father has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office and Alexandria’s utility department, saying a prisoner working for the city on a work crew wasn’t properly supervised when he escaped and later shot and killed the man’s daughter. The Town Talk reports John Kite filed the suit Thursday in the 9th Judicial District Court. His daughter, Johnnie Kite, was killed in June 2014. John Kite says the defendants failed to supervise inmate McKennedy Armstead, who was on a work-release detail with the city’s utility department last summer when he left his work site in a city truck. Police say Armstead shot Johnnie Kite and then himself. Armstead’s relationship with the victim is unclear. Officials said they could not comment on pending litigation.
(AP) Lawmakers in the House have rejected a 1-cent sales-tax hike that would pay for improvements to Louisiana’s crumbling roads. Because the proposal by Rep. Karen St. Germain would increase taxes, it needed support from two-thirds of lawmakers. The House voted 52-42 for the bill, far short of the 70 votes it required to pass. St. Germain said the state has delayed its road needs: “We’ve kicked the can down the road so long that we’re still digging it out of a pothole.” After the vote, the Democrat from Pierre Part decided not to take up a separate road construction proposal that would raise the state gasoline tax by 10 cents. The proposals would have raised $1 billion next year.
(AP) For the third time in recent weeks, a House committee voted down a proposal requiring employees to be compensated equally if they do the same work, no matter their gender. The equal pay proposal, sponsored by Sen. Ed Murray, a New Orleans Democrat, had been backed by the Senate. But Republicans on a House labor committee shot down the bill with an 8-5 vote. Murray’s bill would have prohibited a “distinction in compensation” due to an employee’s gender. It outlined a course for legal action if a worker claims to be underpaid. Supporters said Louisiana has the worst pay gap between men and women in the nation. Critics say the proposal would lead to lawsuits against employers who don’t realize they are paying women less.
